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Pare Lorentz (December 11, 1905 – March 4, 1992) was an American filmmaker known for his film work about the
New Deal The New Deal was a series of wide-reaching economic, social, and political reforms enacted by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in the United States between 1933 and 1938, in response to the Great Depression in the United States, Great Depressi ...
. Born Leonard MacTaggart Lorentz in
Clarksburg, West Virginia Clarksburg is a city in Harrison County, West Virginia, United States, and its county seat. The population was 16,039 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in West Virginia, tenth-most populous city ...
he was educated at Buckhannon High School, West Virginia Wesleyan College, and West Virginia University. As a young film critic in both New York City and Hollywood, Lorentz spoke out against censorship in the film industry. As the most influential documentary filmmaker of the
Great Depression The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, Lorentz was the leading American advocate for government-sponsored documentary films. His service as a filmmaker for the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II was formidable, including technical films, documentation of bombing raids, and synthesizing raw footage of
Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...
atrocities for an educational film on the
Nuremberg Trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...
. Nonetheless, Lorentz perennially will be known best as " FDR′s filmmaker."


New Deal documentary films

Lorentz left West Virginia University, in 1925, to begin a career as a writer and film critic in New York City. He contributed articles to leading magazines such as ''Scribner's'', ''Vanity Fair'', ''McCall's'', and ''Town and Country''. Lorentz also co-authored a 1929 book, ''Censored: the private life of the movie.'' His work as a film critic led him to Hollywood, where he wrote several articles on censorship and ''The Roosevelt Year: 1933'', a pictorial review of the first year of
Franklin D. Roosevelt Franklin Delano Roosevelt (January 30, 1882April 12, 1945), also known as FDR, was the 32nd president of the United States, serving from 1933 until his death in 1945. He is the longest-serving U.S. president, and the only one to have served ...
′s presidency. Roosevelt was impressed with the articles and the book, and in 1936, as president of the United States, invited Lorentz to make a government-sponsored film about the Oklahoma Dust Bowl. Despite not having any film credits, Lorentz was appointed to the
Resettlement Administration The Resettlement Administration (RA) was a New Deal U.S. federal agency created May 1, 1935. It relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government. On September 1, 1937, it was succeeded by the Farm S ...
as a film consultant. He was given to make a film, which became '' The Plow That Broke the Plains'', a film that showed the natural and man–made devastation caused by the Dust Bowl. Though the tight budget and his inexperience occasionally showed through in the film, Lorentz's script, combined with Thomas Hardie Chalmers′s narration and
Virgil Thomson Virgil Thomson (November 25, 1896 – September 30, 1989) was an American composer and critic. He was instrumental in the development of the "American Sound" in classical music. He has been described as a modernist, a neoromantic, a neoclassic ...
′s score, made the 30-minute movie powerful and moving. The film, which had its first public showing on May 10, 1936 at Washington, D.C′s
Mayflower Hotel The Mayflower Hotel is a historic hotel in downtown Washington, D.C., located on Connecticut Avenue NW. It is two blocks north of Farragut Square and one block north of the Farragut North (Washington Metro), Farragut North Washington Metro, Me ...
, had a preview screening in March at the
White House The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. Located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest (Washington, D.C.), NW in Washington, D.C., it has served as the residence of every U.S. president ...
. Roosevelt was impressed and, after his re-election in 1936, gave Lorentz the opportunity to make a film about one of the president's favorite subjects: conservation. Lorentz made '' The River'', a film celebrating the exploits of the
Tennessee Valley Authority The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned electric utility corporation in the United States. TVA's service area covers all of Tennessee, portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and Kentucky, and small areas of Georgia, North Carolin ...
. The TVA mitigated flooding but, more importantly to Lorentz and to Roosevelt, it put a stop to the prodigious pillaging of the forests by providing cheap, readily available hydro–electric power to a wide area. This film won the Best Documentary at the
Venice International Film Festival The Venice Film Festival or Venice International Film Festival (, "International Exhibition of Cinematographic Art of the Venice Biennale") is an annual film festival held in Venice, Italy. It is the world's oldest film festival and one of the ...
. The text of ''The River'' appeared in book form, and was nominated for the
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
in poetry the same year. It generally is considered his most masterful work. When Republicans gained seats in Congress in 1938, and the congressional balance of power shifted in a more conservative direction, the pipeline of federal commissions for projects like Lorentz's were halted along with the short-lived existence of the US Film Service, which Lorentz headed. In 1940, he produced ''Power and the Land'' promoting the Rural Electric Administration. The REA took over its own production, and the film was directed by
Joris Ivens Georg Henri Anton "Joris" Ivens (18 November 1898 – 28 June 1989) was a Dutch documentary filmmaker. Among the notable films he directed or co-directed are '' A Tale of the Wind'', ''The Spanish Earth'', ''Rain'', ''...A Valparaiso'', '' Misèr ...
, the prolific Dutch filmmaker best known for his anti–fascist documentaries. Before the U.S. involvement in World War II, Lorentz made ''
The Fight for Life ''The Fight for Life'' is a 1940 American medical drama film directed by Pare Lorentz. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, Best Original Score of a Picture composed by Louis Gruenberg and released by Columbia Pic ...
'' (1940), a semi-documentary on the struggle to provide adequate natal (obstetric) care at the Chicago Maternity Center, based on a book by
Paul de Kruif Paul Henry de Kruif (, rhyming with "life") (March 2, 1890 – February 28, 1971) was an American microbiologist and writer. Publishing as Paul de Kruif, he is known for his 1926 book, ''Microbe Hunters''. This book was not only a bestseller for a ...
.
John Steinbeck John Ernst Steinbeck ( ; February 27, 1902 – December 20, 1968) was an American writer. He won the 1962 Nobel Prize in Literature "for his realistic and imaginative writings, combining as they do sympathetic humor and keen social percep ...
worked on the project with Lorentz. He made a film for RKO '' Name, Age and Occupation'' that was never completed.


U.S. Army Air Corps World War II films

Lorentz served in the U.S. Army Air Corps, more specifically the
Air Transport Command Air Transport Command (ATC) was a United States Air Force unit that was created during World War II as the strategic airlift component of the United States Army Air Forces. It had two main missions, the first being the delivery of supplies a ...
(ATC), accompanied by
Floyd Crosby Floyd Delafield Crosby, ASC (December 12, 1899September 30, 1985) was an American cinematographer. He won the Academy Award for Best Cinematography in 1931 for '' Tabu: A Story of the South Seas'', his debut film, before going on to shoot over ...
, who became an outstanding cinematographer during World War II. He was promoted to the rank of colonel. While serving, he made 275 pilot navigational films and minor documentaries for the U.S. Office of War Information (OWI) and the U.S. Information Agency (USIA), and filmed over 2,500 hours of bombing raids. (Note: Lorentz's name is not associated with any OWI or USIA films; his son Pare Lorentz, Jr., may have worked on a USIA film though most of his work was for USAID.) In 1946, Lorentz made a federally funded movie about the
Nuremberg trials #REDIRECT Nuremberg trials {{redirect category shell, {{R from other capitalisation{{R from move ...
, intended to help educate the German people as to what had happened during the war. In the process of compiling material, Lorentz reviewed over 1 million hours of footage about the Nazis and their atrocities. ''Nuremberg'', the film that resulted, played to "capacity audiences" in Germany for two years. However, it was not released in the United States until 1979. This film was produced for the Civil Affairs Division of the Government of Military Occupation (OMGUS). Lorentz's role and contributions to this production are not entirely clear because he prematurely resigned and the Hollywood director
Budd Schulberg Budd Schulberg (born Seymour Wilson Schulberg; March 27, 1914 – August 5, 2009) was an American screenwriter, television producer, novelist and sports writer. He was known for his novels '' What Makes Sammy Run?'' (1941) and ''The Harder They ...
is given credit for completing it.


Later life and legacy

In the prosperity of the post–War period, there was no revival of partnerships with the federal government. He had ambitious plans to make documentaries about the New Deal and the United Nations, but funding was not available from government or private sources. His final film was ''Rural Co-op'', which he wrote and directed in 1947. Lorentz lived a quiet life among the country gentry north of New York City in the upscale town of
Armonk, New York Armonk is a Hamlet (New York), hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in the Administrative divisions of New York#Town, town of North Castle, New York, North Castle, located in Westchester County, New York, United States. The corporate headquar ...
until his death in 1992. The
International Documentary Association International Documentary Association (IDA), founded in 1982, is a non-profit 501(c)(3) that promotes nonfiction filmmakers, and is dedicated to increasing public awareness for the documentary genre. Their major program areas are: Advocacy, Film ...
named its Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund, as well as the Pare Lorentz Film Festival and its grand prize in honor of Lorentz, granted to individuals whose work best represents the "democratic sensibility, activist spirit and lyrical vision" of Lorentz."McNary, Dave (November 18, 2004)
"'Fahrenheit,' 'Born' share top IDA kudos"
'' Variety''.
Pare Lorentz Film Festival
. International Documentary Association.


Selected filmography

* ''The Roosevelt Year'' (1933) * '' The Plow That Broke the Plains'' (1936) * '' The River'' (1938) * ''
The Fight for Life ''The Fight for Life'' is a 1940 American medical drama film directed by Pare Lorentz. The film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, Best Original Score of a Picture composed by Louis Gruenberg and released by Columbia Pic ...
'' (1940) * ''Nuremberg'' (1946) * ''Rural Co-op'' (1947) The
Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...
has made available on its website a full-length version of ''The River'', open for public viewing at the print's digital ID o
hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/ntscrm.00101008
This is a theatrical projection print acquired as part of the library's preservation program for films which were honored by being selected for listing on the
National Film Registry The National Film Registry (NFR) is the United States National Film Preservation Board's (NFPB) collection of films selected for preservation (library and archival science), preservation, each selected for its cultural, historical, and aestheti ...
. The following
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page contains the print's
metadata Metadata (or metainformation) is "data that provides information about other data", but not the content of the data itself, such as the text of a message or the image itself. There are many distinct types of metadata, including: * Descriptive ...
as a
Dublin Core 140px, Logo of DCMI, maintenance agency for Dublin Core Terms The Dublin Core vocabulary, also known as the Dublin Core Metadata Terms (DCMT), is a general purpose metadata vocabulary for describing resources of any type. It was first developed ...
record
lccn.loc.gov/2007640253/dc
The Pare Lorentz Center, located at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library in Hyde Park, New York, but with its separate online presence, has links on its website to three films which were posted to YouTube by the FDR Library's account: * The aforementioned film (but a different print) ''The River'' – part of the FDR Library's description reads, "The script for the film was nominated for a
Pulitzer Prize The Pulitzer Prizes () are 23 annual awards given by Columbia University in New York City for achievements in the United States in "journalism, arts and letters". They were established in 1917 by the will of Joseph Pulitzer, who had made his fo ...
for poetry and was also described by author
James Joyce James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (born James Augusta Joyce; 2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist, poet, and literary critic. He contributed to the modernist avant-garde movement and is regarded as one of the most influentia ...
as ‘the most beautiful prose I have heard in ten years’.” * ''The Plow That Broke the Plains'' * ''The Fight for Life'' Part 1 – a historical recording from the
National Archives at College Park The National Archives at College Park (also known as "Archives II") is a National Archives facilities, major facility of the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States which is located in College Park, Maryland. The facili ...


Publications

* * * * *


See also

*
Film censorship in the United States Film censorship in the United States was a frequent feature of the industry almost from the beginning of the Cinema of the United States, U.S. motion picture industry until the end of strong self-regulation in 1966. Court rulings in the 1950s and ...


References


Further reading

* * * Meyer, Michael J. "Pare Lorentz." ''A John Steinbeck Encyclopedia''. Eds. Brian Railsback and Michael J. Meyer. Westport: Greenwood, 2005. 216–17. * Renshaw, Patrick. "Pare Lorentz." ''The Independent'' (UK). March 20, 1992. *


Selected viewing

*


External links

* *
PARE LORENTZ Center

173 works in 418 publications in 3 languages and 7,316 library holdings
by and about Pare Lorentz, at
WorldCat WorldCat is a union catalog that itemizes the collections of tens of thousands of institutions (mostly libraries), in many countries, that are current or past members of the OCLC global cooperative. It is operated by OCLC, Inc. Many of the O ...
Identities
''Pare Lorentz Papers, 1914–1994 (Bulk Dates: 1932–1960)''
an
finding aid
at the Rare Book & Manuscript Library of
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
's
Butler Library Butler Library is located on the Morningside Heights campus of Columbia University at 535 West 114th Street, in Manhattan, New York City. It is the university's largest single library with over 2 million volumes, as well as one of the largest bu ...
* At the Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum
''Pare Lorentz Motion Picture, Sound Recording, and Photographic Collection, 1936–1949''
at the Motion Picture, Sound, and Video Research Room of the
National Archives at College Park The National Archives at College Park (also known as "Archives II") is a National Archives facilities, major facility of the National Archives and Records Administration of the United States which is located in College Park, Maryland. The facili ...

Pare Lorentz Film Festival
of the International Documentary Association {{DEFAULTSORT:Lorentz, Pare 1905 births 1992 deaths American documentary filmmakers Dust Bowl First Motion Picture Unit personnel Military personnel from West Virginia Newmark family People from Armonk, New York People from Clarksburg, West Virginia People of the United States Office of War Information Tennessee Valley Authority United States Army Air Forces officers United States Army Air Forces personnel of World War II West Virginia University alumni Air Transport Command personnel